The incident occurred in January 2016. Daniel Shaver apparently was showing off a pellet gun, and it was visible through the hotel room window. This prompted somebody to call to the hotel front desk, which prompted a call to the police. [Hit & Run]

It’s perfectly legal to carry real guns either openly or concealed in Arizona, to say nothing of a pellet gun in a temporary residence. Of course, cops don’t care about the law.

Court: Group’s 3D printer gun files must stay offline for now The federal civil suit originated three years ago when Cody Wilson and his group, Defense Distributed, published designs for the “Liberator,” the world’s first 3D-printed handgun. Within months, Defense Distributed received a letter from the United States Department of State’s Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, stating that 10 files, including the designs of the Liberator, were in violation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). This letter came despite the fact that these files had already been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times and continue to circulate online. [Ars Technica]

This reminds me of the 1990s, when the Evil Empire tried to keep encryption technology away from people using the same tactics. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now. Here’s a BitTorrent link to download the files in question.

Cops record themselves allegedly fabricating charges with suspect’s camera. In a federal civil rights lawsuit, a Connecticut man has shared footage to bolster his claims that police illegally confronted the pedestrian because he was filming one of them. Authorities seized Michael Picard’s camera and his permitted pistol, and the officers involved then accidentally recorded themselves allegedly fabricating charges against the man.

[…]

The tickets Picard got were for the alleged use of a highway by a pedestrian and for allegedly creating a public disturbance for carrying an “exposed loaded sidearm in plain view of passing motorists.” The authorities eventually dismissed the tickets. [Ars Technica]

Note that carrying an exposed loaded sidearm in plain view of passing motorists is perfectly legal in Connecticut as long as you have a carry permit, which Picard did. Not only did the jackboots get caught fabricating charges, they were so stupid that they couldn’t even come up with something that was actually illegal for their lies.

Seals helped found the group Hands Up United and was a vocal opponent of African-Americans voting Democrat as a bloc. “Just because they’ve got the D next to their name, that don’t mean nothing,” Seals told the Washington Post in 2014. “The world is watching us right now. It’s time to send a message of our power.” [Hit & Run)]

The danger of sending messages like that in a police state is that the people in charge might actually get the message and decide to send back one of their own.

I’ve written in the past about how absurd it is for Americans to worry about Muslims imposing Shariah law in the US. Now, it seems that it’s the Muslims who have to worry about American Shariah laws being imposed in their countries.

Developer Of Anonymous Tor Software Dodges FBI, Leaves US. An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: FBI agents are currently trying to subpoena one of Tor’s core software developers to testify in a criminal hacking investigation, CNNMoney has learned. But the developer, who goes by the name Isis Agora Lovecruft, fears that federal agents will coerce her to undermine the Tor system — and expose Tor users around the world to potential spying. That’s why, when FBI agents approached her and her family over Thanksgiving break last year, she immediately packed her suitcase and left the United States for Germany. “I was worried they’d ask me to do something that hurts innocent people — and prevent me from telling people it’s happening,” she said in an exclusive interview with CNNMoney. Earlier in the month, Tech Dirt reported the Department of Homeland Security wants to subpoena the site over the identity of a hyperbolic commenter. [Slashdot]

It’s depressing that I can now say that I’m old enough to remember when people defected to the US.

I remember when bandits in uniforms were something you read about being a problem in particularly nasty third world hellholes. This also reminded me of the Utah study that found that you’re more likely to be murdered by the police than by (private sector) street criminals.

In recent years it’s been common for neo-Nazis to oppose Muslims living in the US by claiming that they want to impose shariah here. However, that’s just an Arabic word for laws inspired by religion–what used to be criticized here as “legislating morality” before most of the critics started doing it themselves. The truth is that the US is already dominated by shariah laws, many of which have the full approval and support of the neo-Nazis. Not a single one of them was inspired by Islam, though–in the US they almost all come from Christianity and Environmentalism. I decided to keep a list of every news story I saw about a shariah law in the US for a month, and here it is:

In court papers related to the Lavabit controversy, the target of the investigation was redacted, but it was widely assumed to be Edward Snowden. He was known to have used the service, and the charges against the target were espionage and theft of government property, the same charges Snowden faced. [Ars Technica]

This is another illustration of what the Federal Baby Incinerators are talking about when they demand that encryption be rendered worthless in order to fight “terrorism.” What they really mean is to spy on political dissidents, along with other Gestapo-worthy goals such as imprisoning people who prevent puppycide.

There are a few noteworthy things in this story. First, there’s this quote:

…[the cop] “testified that he was not afraid of the dog, but was following training that required him to kill all dogs that approach him, even if it was chained and wagging its tail as Buddy was doing in this case.”

It’s been obvious for years that this is the case, but I’ve never heard of a cop actually admitting it in public before. Then there’s this:

Hupp told PINAC her case hinged on her husband’s video, which they did not have for weeks after the incident because Cook confiscated the phone, which he was unable to access because it was protected by a password.

When the Evil Empire insists that it needs to be able to break into your phone at will in order to convict criminals, this is exactly what they mean.